Kate Cliff on Leaving the Law, Meditation and Living a Good Life

In need of a bit of inspiration? Want to hear a story with a happy ending? In this episode of Beyond Billables, we heard how one lawyer had an accident that changed her course in life forever. Meet Kate Cliff. Kate was a solicitor with HWL Ebsworth and legal officer with ITC Group. She’d graduated from a good school with top marks and was well launched into her legal career. But there was some underlying dissatisfaction, which was brought to the fore in the fallout that followed being struck by a car. The prognosis after her injury was not good. Severely injured, in chronic pain, and struggling mentally, Kate learned to meditate.

Although she returned to legal practice after the accident, the dissatisfaction boiled over, leading her to orientate her life and become a meditation teacher. In our conversation, we heard all the details of Kate’s story and talked about meditation at length.

We also covered quite a few other issues, such as:

How the narrative around what a legal career is and should be must change

How seemingly terrible things can have wonderful outcomes

Why dissatisfaction should not be ignored

How a legal education and skillset have transferrable value into other careers

The power of Vedic Meditation

How financial considerations can trap some people in the law and what to do about it